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Hehe, yeah, it does look bad, but after a horror show like that, I was furious and venting. I posted (#789 above), then went back and dragged them all into the office the next day and laid down some hard truths. I'm delighted they all (bar star man Mazari) took it so well.

After completing this challenge last year with icelandic side Vikingur Olafsvik (CL Finals' screen and for those of you who speak french and would like to know more, here is my career update), I want to do this challenge again. At first I wanted to take Olafsvik again, but actually they are promoted in 2nd division and therefore non-eligible for this challenge. So.. why not with a club from my home country?

To make it a bit more interesting, I will follow one simple additional rule: I can only sign players who are Swiss, German, Austrian or Liechtensteiner citizens. As for the players who are not from these countries but already in the squad, I will sell them as soon as possible and if no one is interested in buying them, they will stay until their contracts expires.

Good Luck RenG, It makes it even more interesting by signing only certain players IMO. I've found it a nice little addition my save in Norway only being allowed to sign Nordic players. Increases the difficulty aswel, but it does feel more realistic playing this way.

With FM2011 crashing on me all the time I've had to abandon my dafuges challenge game with Ashton, it's also about time that I got into FM2012 and with less free time I've decided to give Gundo's challenge another go, I did try a few versions back but only got a few seasons in with LASK in Austria, so I have decided to return to Austria (it's a nice small league so is quicker to progress through seasons) and taken charge of SV Austria Salzburg who are the AFC Wimbledon of Austria - formed back in 2005 when Red Bull took over the original Austria Salzburg side.

Though there does appear to have been a few changes to Austria since I was last there, the First Divison mostly play Tues then Fri and then have a week off for some stupid reason, they also don't have a reserve team/league and you cannot have any overage players in the U19's (not even for friendlies) that makes getting squad players match fit rather difficult, they also seem to have made it nearly impossible for players to gain second nationality - you need to be in the country for 5 years continuously and have a certain amount of appearances for the club (how much I have no idea) - which is a bit of a problem in the first division as you can only field 3 foreign players, it is less of a problem in the Premier Division where you are limited to 7 non-eu, though the Premier Division has a wage cap of 50% of turnover so hopefully wage demands are less demanding than in FM2011. On the plus side you can field trialists in the league and cup which makes for some nice free squad players.

Couple of general questions anyone know if it's possible to get your assistant to stop reminding you about match prep, apart from letting him take control of it? And what happened to the option to get your assistant to find some players to loan?

Well I'm officially Norways top boss, after winning the Norwegian manager of the year award. It was achieched for guiding Sola to the semi final of the cupen and to a runners up finish in the Tippeligaen. Although still miles behind big money Brann, it's a huge improvement and part of me isn't expecting to get past them anytime soon. Norway now has two CL places thanks to Brann's decent form in Europe, So we'll make our Champions League debut next season, albeit in the qualifying rounds first. Highlight of the season included a league double over Rosenborg.

The PlayersGodwin Bossman - Left for Vålerenga at the start of the season after my chairman accepted a 2.7m offer for him.Sindre Fossan- Below par season in the top flight again for Sindre again and made numerous sub apps.Joakim Aaland - Bargain capture from Molde for 65K, finished top scorer easily and now has a string of clubs chasing him.Gabriel Strøm- The captain dominated yet again and will be hard to keep at Sola.Lars Henning Myhren - This young guy has lots of potential and was signed to replace the Bossman, didn't think he'd have as big of an impact so soon though, simply outstanding. He also won Norway's young player of the year award.

Nationality count Jan. 202137 Norwegians6 Swedes1 Danish1 Finnish

Average attendance: 5,670.

Next season: Finish second in the league again and maybe win the cupen.

SK Brann Tycoon Watch
Dominated Norwegian football again by winning the Cupen for the second season running and the league for the fourth consecutive year.
Got the the knock out stage of the CL before being dumped out by Lyon. Currently going strong in this years competition. They only spent 18.5M this capaign, down on last year.

Very impressive Gundo, congrats for the 2nd place! Your players are looking very good, specially Ström with his 20 in jumping, this is something I wish my defenders had..
As for Bossman, there's a tip for you, up to you to use it or not: to prevent the chairman for accepting bids, you have to prevent clubs to make bids for players you want to keep. The best way to do that is to set the asking price very high (like €100M) so even if clubs are chasing one of your players, they will not make offers.

A considerably more stable season, with Felipe being the only first choice player to leave the club - and for a fee that was impossible to refuse. Out league season was basically the inverse of our previous two, with a dodgy start followed by a terrific second half of the season. Getting into the championship group was a little tight, but we arrived there as the in-form team, going on to lose only 3 of the additional 10 games and push our way up to 4th. A pretty straightforward playoff final means we're off to Europe for next season

Another tactical change about a third of the way into the season seems to have worked wonders. As a result, Sobhy actually had a pretty good season claiming second in the Pro League Top Scorer award. His 2 supporting strikers were only here on loan from parent clubs, so I doubt I'll be able to count on them again and so will be looking to either get some additional support up front or maybe give much more pitch time to Noé Peter (See Neppo's youth thread for details on him).

Goal for this season is to make the Euro Cup groups and once again qualify for Europe.

Obviously couldn't have asked for a better end result, but it should've been so much easier. At the halfway point we were 7 points clear, but when we got into bad runs of form it was very tough to get out of them. The reason I chose the West Division II instead of the East was because in the previous season, the promoted team went up with 48 points, this left me thinking that it could be a lot easier to get promoted if we signed some good players, due to how tight the league seemed. Of course this was not the case as half the league bettered Tatabánya's total from last year.

SquadWas given a decent sized wage budget of over £8k to work with, I knew the more I used the more I would cripple the club's finances, but had to take the chance if I wanted promotion. Ended up using over £5k of it and only kept 4 or 5 players from the original squad, who were arguably my best players as well. Had decent cover in just about every position, although stamina was a constant problem.

Cups:Hungarian Cup (lost 0-1 to Debrecen in the 4th Round)
I wanted to have a good run in the cup to raise some well needed funds, but when we were drawn against Debrecen I was fairly sure we'd be going out. In the game itself we actually had a few good chances but didn't convert any. After we went down to 10 men they piled on the pressure and got their only goal, safe to say I was gutted. The cup was eventually won by Kaposvár, who also won the league.

Best Eleven:Gábor Kutasi - Both of my goalkeepers weren't exactly solid, but he was better than Jan Michael Williams who was somehow the highest rated player in my squad.István Baranya - Again he wasn't as highly rated as my other right back Attila Balogh, but he kept his starting place because Balogh never seemed to finish again, either because he was severely fatigued, getting sent off or getting injured.Péter Czipó - He was my first signing, very solid centre back. He was injured for 3 weeks at one point in the season and we really struggled without him.Péter Németh - Not as solid as Czipó but a mainstay in my team.Máté Dudás - Easily my most problematic position was left back, he was the best of a bad bunch.

Zsolt Ábel - I rotated a bit at defensive midfield, but he was my best DM overall.András Horváth - Our most creative midfielder, was always popping up with vital goals and assists.Szilveszter Ágoston - Was at the club before I came, very solid player, had a bad injury which kept him out for a good while and it was tough to replace him.

Károly Galgóczi - Another player who was originally at the club, had a flying start to the season but couldn't maintain form, ended with 18 goals in 31 games, also chipped in with 12 assists.Máté Stilet - The star man, took over in terms of form from Galgóczi and finished the season with a whopping 29 goals in 31 games.Péter Petronovics - Last player who was originally at the club to regularly start, wasn't playing regularly at the start of the season but pushed his way into the team, ended up with a brilliant 17 goals in 22 starts, along with a very helpful 11 assists.

As predicted, quite a lot of movement outwards, but the most significant is perhaps the least obvious. I've only mentioned Ando Avisoa in passing before, as a future option on the right. As he had already missed his chance to be Belgian home-grown, I saw no harm in letting him get a full season somewhere else. It has paid off in spades, as he had a stellar year at Bordeaux. I might be trying that again with some other players. As for the incomers, the most likely is Josue Garcia, who plays in the same position as Aviso, and will get plenty of domestic action when I'm rotating to keep people fresh for Europe.

The Cup, for a change wasn't dull and easy. It was dull and very easy, we didn't even concede a goal this time.
The league was kept interesting by Brugge's efforts, in particular their main man up front Dione, who helped them to become the first team other than Sprimont to top 100 league goals in a season. I made sure to keep them in their place in the playoff stage.
In the Champions League, we were seeded second this year, and took full advantage of a weak group to top it, and secure an easier 1st knockout round opponent. Schalke must hate the sight of us, as we stretched our record against them to played 6, won 5. In turn, I hate the sight of Inter, and particularly one man, Bilal Dif, who they picked up from Toulouse in the January window. He scored 4 of their 5 goals against us. A very dispiriting loss, as apart from him, I felt we had their measure, and they then went all the way to the final.

It is so close. If I had to pick a weakness it would be out wide, as both Cissoko and Munoz, who have owned the wings for the past five seasons, proved themselves to be more Europa League than Champions League this year. Time to find new blood there. The spine of the team is outstanding though, with my 1st choice MC pairing wanted throughout Europe. Marseille, Lyon, Dortmund, Chelsea, both Milan clubs, the list goes on. Hands off boys, they are mine.

p.s. Mazari update : A season of niggling injuries kept him down to 33 appearances this season. He still managed 42 goals though. I hope he gets through the 2022 WOrld Cup in one piece...

Short term plan from last season

"Seeded second... decent run". Yes to one, maybe to the other. Losing to the eventual runners-up is good, right?

Short term plan for next season

A world class left winger (and better luck) might be all I need to get there this season.

Other news

Not much here now the facilities are pretty much completed. Sprimont being such a small town is probably stopping our youth recruitment getting any bigger, which is a shame. Liege is only 20ish miles away, but we don't get access to it I guess.

Belgium in the world

Belgium finally lose the dreadful 16-17 season this year, which should mean we leap above both Holland and Turkey into 8th, next targets are Portugal and Russia. That might take some doing though.

Challenge League | League Table - Fixtures | 4th
We did better than expected but the end of the season was disappointing. Until march we were fighting for promotion but Lausanne were too strong for us and we were too inconsistent to reach promotion. The last games saw us drop from the 2nd place to the 4th place and that's what is disappointing since I don't find that Bienne or even Servette were stronger than us.

Swiss Cup | Fixtures | Third Round
Nothing to say here. Bellinzona were playing in the Super League, so just too strong for us. We at least met the board's expectations.

Note that this count take only in consideration the first team players. In the U21 squad, there is also one ecuadorian who didn't played one single minute this season and will go away at the end of the season on free. It's the same situation for the hungarian and belgian players in the first team (except they speak german so I allowed them to play for their last season). As for the the italian player, I will try to sell him since his contract expires only in 2015, but if no one wants him, he will stay in the squad until his contract ends.

Well, I started a save! Started a save with Völsungur. I've been there once in real life so that will add some fun to the save. Had to reload like 5 times before I got teams that were any interesting. The other option would be Njarðvík. It literally takes me 3-4 minutes to walk to their ground but decided to go with Völsungur since Njarðvík are the main rivals of the team that I support (even though they play in different divisions), Keflavík in Keflavík (Reykjanesbær) . Also takes me about 3-4 minutes to walk to their ground and facilities.

Anyway! Völsungur play at Húsavíkurvöllur in Húsavík a town with nearly 3.000 people. It's a small town in the north coast of Iceland, which is far away from the capital (Reykjavík) and my town, Keflavík.

Having taken over SV Austria Salzburg the AFC Wimbledon of Austria our expectations were to avoid relegation with the board giving me a generous wage budget and a not so generous transfer budget. The bookies gave us odds of 20-1 which were too bad.

Reputation wise we started off with 1.5 stars making us the 8th best side in the league, but worst than three non-league sides.

Transfers - Our starting squad wasn't too bad so I didn't need to make sweeping changes instead bringing in some quality first teamers, youngsters (I seem to have raided Klagenfurt of there youth team) and loanees for squad depth.

League Table - After making a good start we spend most of the season in contention for the title and as we broke for the winter break my players were dominating the player stats charts, in the second half of the season injuries started to pile up, though we only dropped down to third thanks to having played three games less than the two sides above us - which saw us drop seven points behind leaders BW Linz however a 2-1 win at Linz saw us narrow the gap to one point with still two games in hand, with the title being won with a game to go at my previous Austrian side LASK Linz's home thanks to a 93rd minute goal.

FA Cup - Didn't go that well getting knocked out in the Second Round by Sturm Graz's Reserve side.

Squad - We played a Standard Balanced 4-4-2 though in the second half of the season I increased the pressing as we were giving teams to much time on the ball.

Existing Keeper Martin Eisl started the season in goal and was solid enough, though his place is being challenged by promising young Keeper Florian Progelhof who arrived on a free after being released by Horn.

In Defence Right Back provided to be a problem position with neither existing player Florian Hirsch nor loanee Marco Foda really impressing, however on the left I had no problems as I brought in the experienced Angolan Luis Delgado on a free who had a good season.

In the centre of defence I settled on two new signings who both had good seasons Manuel Wallner and Manfred Gollner, providing cover was promising existing youngster Fabio Strauss who put in some good performances and Loanee Martin Rodler who did feel in the first half of the season until he decided to start giving away pens for fun and was dropped to the bench for the second half of the season.

On the wings I had two existing players Ingo Enzenberger on the right and Martin Teurezbacher both of whom had good seasons, with Teurezbacher being named fans player of the year.

In the centre of midfield I brought in German Sandro Foda on a free to play as my Defensive Central Midfielder (looks like you need to play 15-20 games to get Austrian Nationality after being in the country for a continous 5 years) partnering him as my Supporting Advanced Playmaker was David Kobylik who was signed for a bargain £18K who ran the strings until injury saw him miss nearly half the season (which was also when we lost form), covering him was promising youngster Julian Hobel who put in some fine performances.

Upfront I signed Rexhe Bytyci for £1K who lead the line as my Poacher and finished the season as the leagues top scorer with 17 goals. Providing support in a Deep Lying role was Marko Vujuc who had a solid enough season, however he lost his place to Croatian Darko Bodul who was brought in on a free in the second half of the season and is highly rated though he did start slow but redeploying him as a Trequartista saw his performances improve.

Best XI - About right I'd say, though Wallner didn't really impress at rightback.

I started this save a week or so ago, here's my starting profile, and underneath is the first reason report.

FK Macva Sabac - 2012/13 End of Season Update - First LeagueFirst of all, survive...

League (Positions) : An interesting campaign to be honest, we started off really well, but we never had any real consistency throughout. The 3 month winter break (yes 3 months ) really hit us hard, we only get 1 win in 10, and that took us out of any realistic chance of getting promoted. A nice finish to the season got us up to 5th, but the middle of the table is so tight that pretty much any team next season could make a promotion push.

Cup : Teams promoted to the First League don't enter the cup for some reason, hope to make a good run at it next year though.

Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : Some transfers were done before I joined because of the late reset date, and I had a large amount of faith in the initial squad. Also the highest scorers in the league, but the defence needs working on (the worst defence of the teams that stayed up).

With nine games left we have managed to secure our place in the Austrian Premier Division for next season, though that is more due to the fact that Kapfenberger have only managed six points in 27 games so far.

League (Positions) : Much better second year around, although it did take us a few games to get going. A period of 6 wins on the bounce just before Christmas put us in the driving seat for the second half of the season, but a late dip of form (2 points from 4 games) put us back in the chasing pack. 5 wins on the bounce gave us promotion with a game left, but we inexplicably lost to Teleoptik (who finished 12th) to lose the chance of winning the title.

Cup : A nice run of all away games, including a victory at reigning SL champions Rad in the first round.

Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : Still yet to get a good enough squad to implement my full rotation policy that I like to do, but luckily I avoided any long injuries to first team players. Transfer policy is that of one-out, one-in since that's the only way to stay within the wage budget.

Top scorer in the league (after being joint-top club scorer last year) made this a pretty easy choice this season.

Finances : Well playing 4 away cup ties negated any chances of making a good financial return there, and the wage bill rose a lot compared to last year. Hopefully we can fill more than 28% of the ground in the top flight though (worryingly that was the 2nd highest percentage of the entire league).

Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season:

The team is playing some great football at times. Check out this Arsenal-esque goal. Sorry for the poor resolution.

CL-update:

We had to qualify again, but got an easier way because we were the domestic champions.

That qualification pitted us against Levadia Tallin, and then Sturm Graz. They were no match, and it meant we were through to the group stages for the second consecutive year. Still seeded fourth, we knew we would get a hard group.

We were drawn with Liverpool, AC Milan and Valencia.

Managed to beat all of them at least once, Liverpool and Valencia away, and finished second in the group.

The draw for the next round is against Benfica. It is possible for us to get something out of that game. We are not afraid of anyone in Europe.

Best player: We have got ourselves an assist machine in Jamie McLoughlin. 25 assist in one season is fenomenal.

Top scorer: You guessed it. Tomasz Frankowski, keep scoring, and in Europe as well. He is absolutely fantastic.

League (Positions) : Well this was a very pleasing yet annoying season at the same time. Pleasing in that we ended up being relatively comfortable in our position once the new signings gelled with the rest of the squad. However, we would have the most inconsistent of performances each week. For example, we managed to beat the 4 teams above us comfortably at home yet also losing at home to Sloboda (8th), Rad (10th) and OFK (11th). Again we scored highly, the 4th highest in the league, but the defence needs working on again if we are to progress higher next season.

Cup : Highlighting out inconsistency further, cruising the first game but not showing up in the next. For those that are keeping count, that's 6 away cup ties on the bounce now.

Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : Note to self: Chairman sells people if they offer anything close to the asking price. Couldn't afford to rotate the squad as much as I would've liked this season due to the depth being of bottom-FL quality nevermind being close to SuperLeague quality.

I felt uneasy giving this to my top scorer (who got only 8) or any of my defence, due to how bad it was compared to the rest of the top half. Key thing next season is not to sell these calibre of players for nothing but ridiculous amounts of money.

Finances : Thank god for that Jovanovic transfer being in instalments, meaning that we were breaking even in the second half of the season. Ground was on average 55% full so there's room for more revenue to come through too.

Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season:

I used to post early on in this thread for my FC Charleroi save, but haven't kept it up after the first few seasons. Right now im in the 2029/30 season, have won the Belgian Pro League for 9 seasons running and have been knocked out of every round of the CL before, most notably last seasons semi-final loss to Real Madrid and the 2024/25 season runners up where I lost to Man United 2-1 in the final after knocking out Valencia, Barca and Real Madrid. I have also won 3 cups and lost several cup finals. Just thought i'd post as i've taken over my 900th game in charge of FC Charleroi, but unfortunately I haven't followed the rules exactly as I've managed Belgium and now England aswell as Charleroi since around 2023, and last season I loaded England, Spain and Italys leagues but i'll still post when (if) something big happens like me winning the CL even though I haven't exactly followed the rules.

I think my challenge to win the Tippeligaen title in the fututre will be very tough indeed, the reason?

In my save in 2015, SK Brann had an Indian Tycoon takeover and since then they have spent a staggering 68.5 million in new players! That is not including the large number of loan fees they've paid out aswel in securing targets.

Epic challenge competing with that!

Anyone else had anything similar on the domestic front?

*Brann 83rd richest club in Europe

There have been rumours for the last half year, but finally something concrete has happened in Belgium, as Romanian businessman Danut Avram has announced a bid for Standard, and pledged 67 Million for new players if he's succesful. Bearing in mind Standard are likely to cost 40 Million, and are currently over 100 Million in debt, he'd better have extremely deep pockets.
They haven't won a single trophy since the Belgian Cup in 2014, but their infrastructure is great, having moved into a 36573 all-seater stadium just 4 years ago, so all they need is players. I'm not scared (much).

EDIT : Just checked world finances, and Sprimont are 25th, Standard are 94th, Anderlecht 100th. I'll update further (assuming the takeover works) at the end of this season (2022-23, approaching christmas).

There have been rumours for the last half year, but finally something concrete has happened in Belgium, as Romanian businessman Danut Avram has announced a bid for Standard, and pledged 67 Million for new players if he's succesful. Bearing in mind Standard are likely to cost 40 Million, and are currently over 100 Million in debt, he'd better have extremely deep pockets.
They haven't won a single trophy since the Belgian Cup in 2014, but their infrastructure is great, having moved into a 36573 all-seater stadium just 4 years ago, so all they need is players. I'm not scared (much).

EDIT : Just checked world finances, and Sprimont are 25th, Standard are 94th, Anderlecht 100th. I'll update further (assuming the takeover works) at the end of this season (2022-23, approaching christmas).

Look forward to it. Brann are still miles apart from the rest in the Tippeligaen and have been competing well with the big clubs in Europe.

corinthiano: Ljubljana are still in the database, but they haven't had a promotion to the Second League yet. Sorry I'm late with this response, as well as my latest update, which will follow shortly.

No worries, cheers for the reply. Unfortunately they cannot be promoted to the Second League in FM12, a shame because I really enjoyed my save with them on FM11. I might come back to Slovenia later though, I found the seasons quick to go by and the set-up of the league really enjoyable. Good luck with Krka and I look forward to your update

An online game in Russia with a few friends has distracted me from this save in Slovenia, but after finishing off another season today, here's my report on how things are progressing.
No movement in the league this year, but another 3rd place finish is nothing less than I was hoping for. Olimpija and Maribor are going to prove tough to crack, but I'm confident that we'll be able to sneak into the top two in the end.
This season saw Krka participate in a fourth consecutive domestic cup final, but after a pretty one-sided match with Maribor, we lost for the second season in a row.

Europe turned out to be another case of déjà vu. The third qualifying round was all we could manage in the Europa League, just as in the two previous seasons. Antalyaspor of Turkey were our downfall this time.

Last summer was one of our quieter ones transfer-wise. Only three players came in, whilst three more left. The most notable departure was Tim Ceh, one of my personal favourites to have played for my Krka team. He refused to agree terms, and went instead to Rudar Velenje, a team still stuck in the Second League. Strikers Mitja Plahuta and Miha Kokol were brought in as replacements. Rok Ribic was our other acquisition in the summer, whilst youngster Abdou Bah joined in November.

January saw the signing of Filip Pospisil, a player I've been tracking for a while now, to cover for defence. However, a shock bid of £625K from Olimpija for Hakob Darbinyan, a defender I only signed a season or so ago, was accepted by my board above my head. Hakob moved swiftly on. This made my signing of Pospisil all the more important. We took Rok Buzeti in the other direction, to play right-back.

The end of the season came, and APOEL too made a £625K bid for my other centre half, Szabó, who I signed during the other summer along with Darbinyan. Again, the board intervened and Szabó chose to leave. It gave my bank a nice boost, though. I've made a few signings so far in this transfer window, but I'll cover them next year.

After last season's disappointment, I took a breather, and a long hard look at the squad. Then I sold my first choice AML and replaced him with two AMRs. Except I already had enough at AMR. Oops. I also picked up two promising full backs (Tessier and Decroix) to try and find a long-term solution to that perennial problem. I will no doubt get bored of these two soon enough and sell them as well. The loanees helped feeder club Ronse get promoted to the second league, which should make developing youth slightly better.

Domestically, we ran riot. Literally. Hop over to the records thread and have a look at some of the things we did this year. It was freakish. Even more so considering I was rotating backup players in constantly to try and keep the first eleven fresh for Champions League games.
Ah, the Champions League, my old hated friend. The joy from scoring 10 in Prague only lasted as long as the irritating home defeat to Barcelona. We mostly matched them, but a rare Fernandez off day and a sending off cost us. So we tore the group to pieces. Six goals at Juventus, three in the Nou Camp giving us 3 away wins, 19 goals scored. My group. Old friends Schalke came up next and actually beat us for the first time in 7 attempts, but we ground them down at home. Another visit to Stamford Bridge followed, and another six-goal thriller likewise, except we didn't lose 5-1 for a change, and took a 4-2 win back home and finished them off in style. Old Trafford was very scary, and heroics from Ruben Sanchez in goal kept us in it until a goal from a corner gave us something to protect. Alas, 34 year old Javier Hernandez came of the bench to chip Sanchez in the 92nd minute and leave us needing to win at home. We gave it a heck of a go as well, degenerating into some brutish kicking in the second half as it didn't look like going our way, which ultimately, it didn't. At the time of writing, the final has not yet been played, but it's Man. United, a team I didn't lose to this season, against Barcelona, who I beat at their place this season. Touching distance away once more.

Very heavily distorted by the actions of one man this year. Eighty goals is just silly. Francisco Fernandez was a weapon of mass destruction in Belgium, and didn't do badly in Europe either. He is basically Gabriel Batistuta, and I've got him for four more years at least. This squad, led by him, is good enough to win the ultimate prize. Bring it on.

p.s. Mazari update : Another season of niggling injuries kept him down to 21 appearances this season. He still managed 24 goals though. I'm never going to sell him, but he's only just second choice at the moment...

Short term plan from last season

"World class left winger + luck". I'm not sure I managed either of those, but still progressed. So close.

Short term plan for next season

Win the Champions League.

Other news

No news from Sprimont, but Standard have a new, rich owner. Their reputation is now higher than Sprimont's and they've nearly trebled in value to be 26th behind our 24th in the world rich list. Despite the takeover being completed around christmas, they spent no money in January. This summer mght be intersting...

Belgium in the world

Finally, some proper Belgian club success. Newly rich Standard, having come through their Europa League group, ran into Brugge in the 1st knockout round. Astonishingly, Brugge not only beat them, but went all the way to the final. Football throws up funny stories. The last time the Europa League final was held in Scotland (at Celtic Park), Sprimont took it home. The last time the final was held at Hampden Park (2007), Sevilla won.

Hmm, I just holidayed my first season in Finland, 4 teams for relegated from the Firs Division, but only one new team got promoted to it. So last year the league had 13 teams and now it only has 10. Interesting.

Heya. Im not looking to play in this challenge but i would like some advice for you. I want to play in a league I've never played in before, and I dont know where to go. I want to manage a club with a half-decent (although not by any means perfect) youth set-up because I want to do Neppo's youth challenge. I don't want them to be a top team in any country, either, although I will probably be looking for a team in a top division (this is not an absolute requirement but I think that's what I want).

Could anyone tell me which country would be the best from these? I want a fun game which is possible but not too easy, and where the Neppo principles (i.e. Give Youth a Chance) will not jeopardise my success too much.

SCOTLAND - was thinking of someone like Inverness CT or perhaps Hearts/Hibs. Would be good to break the Rangers/Celtic duopoly.
ITALY - perhaps Fiorentina, to restore them to former glories?
FRANCE - was thinking of perhaps going with a smaller team here like Nimes or perhaps Metz?
GERMANY - perhaps 1860 Munich or Bochum?
RUSSIA - with all the money in Russian football now, could this be a good place to do it? Who with?
MINOR EURO LEAGUES - Finland? Belarus? Wales, perhaps? I had a good game in FM08 with Linfield in N. Ireland....Even Holland might be fun - there are so many clubs that are always in the top division but never in Europe. Basically, it seems to be just Twente, Ajax, Feyenoord and PSV.

AUSTRALIA - no idea who with, but it just sounds like fun.
CHINA - people keep saying they'll be a big powerhouse in football soon, but will they? Is it worth a try?
SOUTH KOREA - probably the strongest league in Asia? Worth a shot? Also, what happened to the J-League? How come it's not in FM?

BRAZIL/ARGENTINA - has obvious benefits with regards the Neppo thing (i.e. Brazilians are awesome), but would I have the $$$ to keep hold of them for a while? Which teams might be good?
ANY OTHER S.AMERICAN LEAGUE - no idea which would stand out - any thoughts?

MEXICO - no idea about this league, any thoughts?

I would like a country where the squad restrictions are simple and not too restrictive, too. But frankly, somewhere like Brazil, Italy, France, Germany etc does appeal simply because they are likely to produce more decent regens, which is important for Neppo....

Sorry, i know this is a little OT, but I would really appreciate some input. Want to start this evening. Undecided about whether to holiday through the first season to get my first youth intake or not, though....

Thanks Taunton. I'm actually really excited about Brugge and Standard. With Dione firing in goals aplenty at Brugge, and Standard's money, Belgium could really make an impact on Europe and push for higher in the co-efficients. I guess a little more challenge domestically wouldn't hurt either...

League (Positions) : A very poor start cost us in the end, as well as the odd annoying away defeat to mid-table teams. Still haven't sorted out the defence though, Red Star conceded only 19 goals this season compared to our 40. Still, EL football next season should be fun.

Cup : What's that? A home draw? First time in 3 years. Disappointing performance against OFK gives us a target to beat next season.

Squad (1)(2) and Transfers (1)(2) : I think there may be two players who have been at the club for more than a season, which in all honestly is quite ridiculous. Again, I would like a feature that stopped chairman interference but oh well...

Cracking free signing in the summer, breaking the Man of the Match club-record, collecting the League Player and Manager's Player of the Season as well as the top club scorer from the wing. Must keep hold of him in the summer.

Finances : Lots of transfer income means I can now improve all the club infrastructure in one go. A good Europe run could be very nice next season too.

Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season:

2016 Champions League Final: Chelsea 2-0 Arsenal. That's Chelsea's 2nd CL in the last 3 years.

Transfers - Not much activity due to a lack of funds with German midfielder Kapsa and Uruguay Winger Ortega arriving on pre-arranged transfers whilst my other activity was limited to a couple of promising youngsters, sales wise I got rid of several overpaid squad players and attempted to loan out anyone not in my match squad as I fought to reduce our outgoings.

League - We finished in a nice comfortable mid-table position, we were in no danger of relegation as Kapfenberger were awful, what was interesting was our contrasting home and away form - we did have the best home form in the league until the last few games when I fielded youngsters and players with the lowest bonuses to save money - after eight games our home form read played four, won four scored 10 conceeded zero, whilst our away form read played four, lost four, scored zero, conceeded 10. Our performance in the league was impressive considering we are truly outmatched - despite filling our stadium our average attendance is just over half of the next team, as is the salary that we are paying.

FA Cup - We also embarked on a cup run this season making it to the Semi-Final where an awful first half ended any hopes of getting to the Final.

Squad - I kept faith with the same 4-4-2 formation, though for away games I experimented with different formations to try and pick up some away points without much sucess.

In goal Florian Progelhof got the rod and but in some good performances, however a couple of drops in form and an injury that ruled him out for the last month of the season saw Martin Eisl play the same amount of games as him.

In defence we had major problems thanks to a lack of funds I couldn't really bring in any reinforcements - at left back was the aging Luis Delgado who had a good enough season providing cover was a promising young Dane Ole Jensen who was brought in on a free youth contract after being released by AaB who made a good start before getting injured.

In the centre of defence I brought in promising Finnish youngster Johannes Nordstrom who initialy started out at right back as I had a lack of options but that didn't suit him so I moved him into the middle where he started to put in some good performances before he broke his leg that ruled him out for half the season, then on his return he torn a calf muscle and will be out for another six months This left me to turn to Manuel Wallner and Manfred Gollner who were solid enough for the most part, providing cover was Fabio Strauss who put in some good performances again as did Academy prospect Sascha Mazur.

At right back with a lack of options I gave youngster Andreas Unger a chance and he took it putting in some excellent performances that also saw his value shoot up.

On the right wing I had two youngsters Manuel Schuttelkopf and Ivan Rezic both of whom put in some excellent performances, on the left was highly rated Uruguayan Jorge Ortega who I'd snapped up for £80K in the first season (after his agent or my assistant had recommended him to me) but had to wait until he turned 18 to join.

In the centre of midfield I snapped up promising German Mateusz Kapsa for a club record £100K to play as my Defensive Midfielder, in the Playmaker role we had a few problems David Kobylik didn't prove to be good enough for this level so highly rated youngsters Markus Klotz and Florian Grillitsch were given some games, I did have a quality Dutch Midfielder on trial for a couple of months but we no money to offer him a contract he went back to Holland in Jan.

Upfront I broke the bank (shows how good he is as my board actually gave me some money to sign him) to snap up Spanish Striker Emilio who had been released by R. Madrid and he hit the ground running, with the arrival of Emilio Rexhe Bytyci dropped into the support role where he continued his good form and ended up being the second topscorer in the league he was also named fans player of the year and named in the Premier Division Select XI, this also saw Darko Bodul drop to the bench, I also gave a couple of games to Academy prospect Vlatko Donev.

I've successfully travelled around the globe finishing each challenge, although I haven't updated America/Asia, but I have screens to prove it. So after FC United, Dromara Village, Castellon, Vancouver and Gold Coast United, I've decided to come back to Gundos. My plan is to see how many countries I can knock off before FM13 comes out. I'm starting with Ukrainian team Girnyk Kryvyi Rih. I'll try keep the updates flowing.

Things are progressing quite nicely at Krka, a poor start to the season prompted me to abandon a formation that had served me well for a good few years, and opt for two wingers instead. This worked well, pushing us up the league to 2nd; a position which we maintained for the whole of the season. Olimpija led a late charge to try and take the runner-up spot from us, but could only come within 3 points. Maribor were crowned champions.
The cup saw us progress to the final once more, but we made it a hat trick of defeats - this season it was Maribor who pipped us to both domestic competitions.
The Europa League's third qualifying round again proved too difficult for us, and it was Legia of Poland who dumped us out. Finishing 2nd in the league allows us to enter the competitiong at the 3rd Q. Round immediately, so hopefully the draw will be kind. There is a chance we will be seeded this year, I think.

Transfers this season saw more players bought than sold, with Nenê, Alex Jaramillo, Aljosa Krajnc and Babacar Camara all becoming key players. The signing of Camara was particularly important, as we have no other natural left winger. Krajnc left the club only 6 months later, after Olimpija threw £775K at my board, who accepted on my behalf. Given that we signed him on a free, it was quite a nice piece of business. Ladislav Adamek came in during the January window, after Gregor Sculac departed for Sparta Rotterdam via his £88K foreign club release clause (an annoyance to say the least). I am, however, excited about Adamek, despite the shocking nature of his finishing so far.
Reserve keeper Tadej Cipot requested contract termination, was given it, and Kristjan Lipovac came in as a replacement. He is now unhappy. Shame.

Player of the season: Babacar Camara - He came in for £10K and has been superb. His 19 assists from 33 games are supplemented by a tidy sum of 9 goals, making Camara a useful player to have at the club. More to come from him, I hope.

Top Goalscorer: Filip Pospisil - I'm even shocked at this one. A closely contested award, with goals coming from all angles this year, but a centre half has actually won top goalscorer. And his partner, Nenê, came third. They collected 16 and 13 goals respectively.

Player to note: Roberto Acosta - He's had a slow start at the club but the 21 year old is finally starting to come into his own. Fierce competition for two striker spots will make things challenging for him, but I hope he can flourish in the coming seasons.

FK Macva Sabac - 2015/16 End of Season Update - Super LeagueWith a whole lot of luck...League (Positions) : Last season it was the failure to get points when we played poorly which cost us, this season it was almost getting points when we deserved more that would do the same. After taking a few games to separate from the rest of the pack, it soon become a 2 horse race between ourselves and Red Star. After losing the home game 1-0 to them, we had to settle on them slipping up somewhere along the way. However, our stumbles seemed to be simultaneously throughout the second half of the season.

With us falling behind due to our Europe commitments, we had a mad schedule in the last 3 weeks to finish on time. After losing one of these catch-up games (away to Partizan) we needed a miracle on the last day to secure the title, with us needing to win at 5th placed Proleter, whereas Red Star would need to stumble to 4th placed Vojvodina. We did our bit, and somehow so did Vojvodina. So the title was won by 2 points, and CL football will be played in Sabac next season Cup : I set out a target to reach the final this season, and we didn't disappoint. Annoyingly Red Star lost on penalties in the Semis and so a thrashing of Spartak in the final had to be suffice.

Europa League : The plan was to get a taste of European football so we won't be overawed when playing the big boys next year. However, after sneaking through the qualifying rounds (the goal that put out Twente was scored in the last 25 mins of the tie) we then shocked some pretty large names in the group staged. AS Monaco, Fenerbache and AZ Alkmaar were all defeated at home, as well as a tight win in Turkey, which somehow saw us win the group based on our head-to-head record with the Dutch side.

From now on it was just a case of who else could we could we beat, and the answer was apparently nearly everyone else. Bremen were destroyed in Germany before also going down in Serbia. Next up were Arsenal who after playing a weaker side than normal were punished by losing at the Emirates 3-2, before their first choice side could only get a 1-1 draw in the 2nd leg. Onwards to the Quarters we went, were Stuttgart were dispatched without any real alarms (probably the weakest team we'd played since Twente back in the qualifying rounds). The Semis though, were a different matter. We were massively outplayed in Madrid, and were lucky to only come away 1-0 down. The second leg though was a case of a lack of composure costing us, 2 counter-attacking goals putting us out 3-0 on agg.

Atletico would then go on to lose the final to Olympique Lyonnais 3-1, which was theire 2nd consecutive title.

Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : Add in 2 signings that happened before the reset date (Vojvodic to Kyiv for £1.8m and Simunovic to Young Boys for £2m) means around £30m in total transfers through, although not all upfront. Most of the squad are contracted through past next season too, meaning I won't have a fire sale in January (hopefully) to avoid people leaving on frees as I had to this year.
Player of the Season : Branko Stojkovic - ST

Sold the Earth twice to keep him at the club long-term (his wages are around 40% of the club's total salary) but he's more than worth it. Just waiting for him to dominate on the international scene now.Finances : More than £20m coming in is more than handy this season, as another round of facility improvements can happen. And to think I've got CL money to come in from next season too.

Although the shareholders dividends have started to take affect in a less than impressive way.
Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season.

I updated in the middle of the Euros last season; Germany winning the final 1-0 over England. Switzerland and Sweden were surprise Semi-Finalists.

2017 Champions League Final: Real Madrid 0-1 Man Utd. That's now 4 English winners in the last 5 years.

Good news for Serbia as a whole, as due to our EL run and Red Star getting to the last 16 of the CL; Serbia rised to 12th in the nations list, which means that next season there'll be 2 CL places up for grabs including 1 in the group stages.

9 of my first-team squad were part of the Serbia U21 squad which got to the Semis of the Euro U21 Championship in England, losing to eventual champions Italy.

Once again, flying through these seasons, and apologies for the double post.

FK Macva Sabac - 2017/18 End of Season Update - Super LeagueRunning away domestically, not much so in Europe...League (Positions) : The table and position gap is a little bit deceiving, as the gap at the winter break (after 16 games) was only 2 points between ourselves and Red Star. However, we only dropped two points after the break; cantering away to our 2nd title in a row.Cup : The target this year was to retain the cup with as little effort as possible. With Red Star falling in the 1st round, the path to success was pretty simple. We even got away playing a 17 year old GK in the final, as both first choice keepers had been taken away to the national squad due to the lateness of the match.Champions League : After our surprising, and also impressive, run in the Europa League last season, my aim was to get to the group and have a good crack at getting some sort of European football in the new year. We cruised through the qualifying rounds, with Derry City and Debrecen being destroyed and Austria Wien also being dispatched.

We got a very tough group stage draw though (probably the second toughest available) of Liverpool, Olympique Marseille and AS Roma. Strangely, it wasn't our home form that was impressive but our away performances; gaining a point at Anfield and wins in Marseille and Rome. This left us able to progress despite losing two out of my three home games. Annoyingly, if had we managed a draw vs Roma in the last game, we would've won the group.

The last 16 draw was slightly kind to us, getting PSG (although Barcelona and Real Madrid had both finished second in their group). We didn't really play well enough in either game to warrant progression. Still a good first attempt to build upon next year.
Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : A much more stable flow of transfers this year, with the emergence of a few youth graduates taking their chance in the first team. However, both STs are looking to leave in the summer, so there may be more activity next season.
Player of the Season : Abdoulaye Sissoko - AMR
Actually a hard choice this season; since we were easily the class of the league now, the cup was won with minimal effort and our run in Europe wasn't down to anyone in particular.Finances : Steadily going up, although so is the total salary of the club. With training and youth facilities almost maxed out the next step is to persuade the board to build a new stadium. Whilst I'm at it, I suppose asking them to reduce their dividends could be helpful.
Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season.

2018 Champions League Final: Atletico Madrid 1-2 Manchester United. That's 3 CLs in 6 years for Utd, who in those finals have beaten (in order) Barcelona, Real Madrid and now Atletico. I'm sensing a pattern...

Serbia improved one place in the nations list, moving up to 11th. Now that Partizan have qualified for European competition for the first time in 4 years let's hope there's more than ourselves and Red Star pulling the country up.

5 of my first-team squad was picked in the Serbian squad for the World Cup. Unfortunately they got knocked out in the group stage, finishing bottom in a group of Brazil, Russia and Burkina Faso. In the World Cup itself, 4 European teams made the Semi-Finals, with Belgium beating Croatia 2-0 and Portugal beating Italy 1-0. In the final, Portugal won 2-1 due to a 90th minute winner.
History2012-13: FL - 5th2013-14: FL - 2nd2014-15: SL - 5th2015-16: SL - 2nd2016-17: SL - 1st, Cup Winners, EL Semis2017-18: SL - 1st, Cup Winners, CL Last 16

Just a quick update, started with TP-47 in Finland. First season I managed to outperform expectations and finished 4th in the 10 team league. In my second season my expectations were still to avoid relegation, and I ended up winning the league in a thrilling 1 vs 2 matchup on the last day of the season. So now it's on to the Finnish Premier League with basically the same squad I started with, as money is incredibly tight.

Going into my last game of the season, I was bottom of the league by two points. I thought the sack was coming for sure, but I managed to scrap a win and my rivals lost, leaving me 11th out of 12 with 25 points out of 33 games. So I've surived one more year, but this team is so poor it's gonna take a miracle to keep doing it.

We are solid on home soil, but we were not spectacular this year. I rotated the team a bit, and that resulted in some poor performances. But overall, third league win in a row and our team is young so there is a big chance that we can dominate for years to come.

Found ourselves a new first choice keeper, Radek Kupka. He has been amazing, and he is just 17 years old.

We had the chance to do the domestic double for the first time, but were abysmal in the cup final, and lost 2-1 to Start. So we still have that double left to aim for in Norway.

We went out in the quarter-finals against Ajax. We are improving in Europe, and I am happy that we went this far. I still suspect that we need a couple more world class players to conquer Europe though.

That was before the summer, in the autumn we got a new chance in Europe. Now we went directly into the group stage and that is great. We are currently ranked 50th in Europe.
Seeded 4th we got another tough draw, Barcelona, AC Milan and Besiktas. Manage to get a point against Barca at home, but there is still a gulf in class between the teams.

Welcome dj clark boy, hope Hungary goes well for you this time.
Good luck against Malaga Taunton, and Dombrowski looks great right now.

Now that's done, onto the new update...
FK Macva Sabac - 2018/19 End of Season Update - Super LeagueOne step forward, 2 steps back.
League (Positions) : Again the table tells a false story, as Red Star started out with 13 wins out of 13, and the gap at the winter break was only 2 points. Amazing that I didn't draw a single league game all season, and it should be noted my 4 defeats were all to lower-half sides. Maybe an unbeaten season isn't too far off?
Cup : Poor, poor, poor. Barely got through the first two rounds (all goals on 80+ mins), although losing on pens is always annoying.
Champions League : Due to the nation's performances over the past few seasons, we qualified automatically for the group stages. However, Red Star couldn't join us, meaning we had to fly the Serbian flag solo once again.

Being 4th seeds once again didn't help, especially getting Real Madrid, Liverpool and Celtic in the groups. Poor performances in the first games against Madrid and Liverpool gave us a lot of work to do, but a draw against the Spaniards meant that a win for us in Glasgow coupled with a Liverpool win in Madrid would put us through. We did out part, but unfortunately Madrid got their point which put them through via a better head to head record.
Europa League : Since we finished 3rd we got dropped down to the knock-out stages of the EL, where we had the manageable task of Spartak Moscow. A clean sheet in both legs enabled us to progress to meet Feyenoord in the last 16. A lack of composure in front of goal cost us in the first leg, and after being outplayed in the 2nd we bowed out on away goals.

Feyenoord managed to make a run to the final, where they lost to Bayer Leverkusen 1-0.
Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : Much more like what I want to see. No-one getting too many games and being burnt own at the end of the season, with a nice steady flow of money coming through both windows too . Goals spread around the entire midfield and strikeforce is nice to see, although I do miss a real big threat for European games since the sale of Savovic.
Player of the Season : Slobodan Vilotic - AMC

I know it seems I only pick attacking players, but for someone who broke the assists record quite convincingly it was once again an easy choice. He's getting quite a lot of recognition too, picking up; Serbia Journalists' Player of the Year (2018), Managers' Player of the Season AND Young Player of the Season (2018/19) as well as 9 selections in the Team of the Round this season.
Finances : Slowly going up until January this season; then with new contracts (Vilotic and Nesic being paid a lot more than anyone else), training and youth facilties upgrades (should make them both state-of-the-art now) and a generous dividend payout the money has been going down slightly in recent months. Still no word on a stadium though, despite it being 95% full for league games and jammed packed every European night.
The Takeover Fiasco : What's this, a new part? Well for the first time in a challenge, my chairman is looking to move on.

First heard about it in December, just want you need before making some deals in the winter transfer window.

I thought that was the end of it, but at the season's end the chairman is still wanting to go, and talks started a month later. £48m to gain a controlling share in a Serbian club seems like a lot to me though personally...
Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season.

2018 Champions League Final: Arsenal 0-4 Liverpool. Another English team winning, that's 4 in a row and 6 of the last 7. Arsenal now also have 2 runners-up medals in the last 4 years.

A poor showing by Serbian clubs as a whole really. Partizan and Red Star failed to get out of their EL groups, meaning we got a below-average performance for the year. Still a couple of seasons before our miracle score gets wiped off though.

9 players of mine were drafted into the U-21 squad for the European Championships, but the never stood a chance really of getting out of a group containing Italy, Spain and England. Italy went on to win the final 2-1 over France in extra time, their 2nd title in a row.

Tings are looking good, midgetram, you are dominating at home now. Feel we are a bit in the same situaton, to good for our league, but lack a couple of world class players to do the final step in Europe.

But with your league wins you are guaranteed to get in the CL-groups, so eventually you will get that european trophy. Amd I hope that something will happen with your stadium soon.

Mine has now been expanded and it will hold a massive 7000 spectators. (Yes that is seven, not seventy)

Well, after 6 years with TP-47, I got relegated. I was bleeding so much money that by the time I got relegated I was already 700, 000 in the red. I;ve decided to start over, and instead of going for immediate success, take it slow and build from the ground up. This time I head to Iceland, and I'm currently hollidaying.

Taunton it's great to see Frankowski still banging them in and staying loyal!

Yeah, it's quite amazing that he is still at the club. He came for free from Schalke in 2020. Tollnes is his favourite club, and I am on his favoured personell list. Maybe we have a kind of Wenger-Henry relationship?

So now I expect him to play for us a couple more years, have a big money transfer to Barcelona, win everything possible with them, move to America and then join us on a short term loan and score the winner for us in an early cup-round.

Manage to tie down a lot of good players on long term contracts, so even though the wolves are cicrcling, I will do everything possible to keep my best players at the club.

I have just scouted through both the national team and the under 21's, and I have to say there is very few great norwegian players. Most of them get two or two and a half stars. I just have to wait until my youth set up is fully upgraded I think, before the big domestic talents emerge.

Just a quick question here. Have any of you managed to not bleed money in the early stages of your save? I'm losing about 20k per month, but only 2k of it is spent on wages, so I guess I just have to deal with it?

Just a quick question here. Have any of you managed to not bleed money in the early stages of your save? I'm losing about 20k per month, but only 2k of it is spent on wages, so I guess I just have to deal with it?

I lost money every year until I got promoted in my save. I think a lot of money is going out on maintenance to the facilities etc. But once you get in a division were you get prize and tv-money, you should start to see black numbers at the bottom line. Also sponsorships improve while you are improving.

After 4 years, Fjaroabyggo have finally been promoted to the Premier League. Mostly done with the improvement of the youth, and I've made the semi-finals of the cup two years running, so I'll see how the boys can get on without much change to the squad.

I didn't know if I was going to stick with this save or not, seeing as my foray into Finland went about as poorly as it could have. But now I'm pretty well addicted to it, so I guess I'll post the screenshots that I was supposed to post at the start.

It was a great debut year in the Premier Division for us, finishing 3rd and qualifying for the Europa League on the last day of the season with a win over our rival, and a loss from our other rival.

Players:

Vioar Kjartansson (ST) - Been our talisman for 2 years now, plays all alone up front and keeps on banging them in.Sindri Eyjolfsson (MC) - The older of the Brothers, Sindri had a decent season and continues to grow.Bjarni Eyjolfsson (MC) - The younger and slightly more skilled Brother, Bjarni had a great season as our main playmaker, notching 6 goals and 5 assists.

Average Attendance: 577

Next Season Goals: Try to qualify for Europe again, start making a profit, and do well in the Europa League!

I'm on a bit of a hiatus at the moment, mainly because of Crusader Kings II (life-stealer, be very brave), but I can give out a little transfer window update on Tycoon-led Standard. As mentioned above, their new Romanian chairman promised £67 Million for new players, and oh boy has he come good on that so far. With two weeks left in August, Standard have already splashed out £55 million on half a team. They've been shopping in France mainly and two in particular deserve a special mention. Ryusuke Hirata cost £16.75 Million, and looks like a decent playmaker, but the big one is a fellow by the name of Juan Cotella, who was, ever so briefly, a teammate of Francisco Fernandez's at FC Barcelona Juniors Lujan. He looks like the real deal. Will he be a bargain at £17 Million? Time will tell...

Good first season in the Pepsideild, Rochebag. Do you manage to have a lot of icelandic players in your squad, or do you have to rely on foreign players?

I find in my save in Norway that the domstic players aren't good enough.

I have a squad of 24 right now, 21 of which are Icelandic, two Danes, and a Slovak. I think Norway's leagues are much better than Iceland, but their homegrown players aren't really any better. I suppose that's why.

A disappointing season all around, starting in the League Cup, where we failed to advance from the Group Stage for the first time in three years. A draw against defending champions Por in the main cup saw us out of that competition after just two games. So then all that was left was the League and Europe, and sadly the League went no better. We finished 7th out of 12, a pretty large step backward from last season, though there is little between most teams in the table.

Europa League: Drew against Northern Ireland's Linfield in the First Qualifying Round. It didn't look good after Leg One, but it got a whole lot better in Leg Two.
The Second Round saw us draw against Georgian side Zestaponi. We managed a draw at home in Leg One, but got swept off the pitch in the Second Leg. Overall a good European debut, and the money will certainly help.

Players:

Sindri Eyjolfsson (MC) - Sindri took a step back this year, and I think he's just about topped out as far as his potential goesBjarni Eyjolfsson (MC) - Bjarni however continues to improve and create goals as well as finish them from central midfield

Average Attendance: 696 (+119)

Last Season Goals: Get into Europe again: No
Start making a profit: Yes (though only because of the 200k from Europe)
Have a good European debut: Yes

A much better season this year. Starting with the League Cup where we won our group undefeated. A semi-final draw against perennial power Valur saw us bow out of the competition. The main cup was much more unforgiving, being eliminated by Valur again, this time in our second game. The League was much more kind though, and saw us finish with the most points in club history, another 3rd place finish, and a spot in the Europa League.

Players:

Bjarni Eyjolfsson (MC) - Had another good year and continues to be our star player, his brother played his way out of the starting lineupStefan Porsteinsson (AML) - Former youth product has a breakout year, dominating the left side of the pitch and leading the team in goals

Average Attendance: 650 (-46)

Last Season Goals: Get back into Europe: Yes

Next Season Goals: Push for the League Title, Reach the 3rd Qualyfing Round of the Europa League

So after surviving last season the expectations this season were to avoid relegation and again with no money, the bookies gave us odds of 40-1 whilst the media rather surprisingly predicted we would finish 7th.

Transfers - Quiet season with no money for wages I brought in two German youngsters and an Ivory Coast winger on freebies, whilst my parent clubs loaned me two midfielders I didn't need, sales wise I loaned out players who were outside the match squad to save money or players that I wanted to get rid of but couldn't sell, a player who annoyed me was third choice Striker Bodul we moaned about not playing but then rejected the contracts of anyone who bidded for him most annoying is that Mattersburg who have had a tycoon takeover bid £700K for him only for him to reject the contract thankfully I managed to loan him out to a German Second Divison side on deadline day.

FA Cup - Didn't go to plan as we were dumped out of it in the Second Round by non-league Pasching.

Youngster Florian Progelhof was given the nod in goal where he did ok considering my defence.

At right back Andreas Unger was in good form, on the left age appears to be catching up to Luis Delgado and young Dane Ole Jensen put in some good performances and he may get the nod next season unless I can bring in someone better.

In the centre of defence things didn't go well though changing my centrebacks to Limited Defenders helped a little, Johannes Nordstrom continued his injury plight and his loss of speed cost him however when he is fit and on form he is my best defender and as he keeps on getting injured in matches there isn't much I can do to stop it, partnering him was Fabio Strauss who has continued to develop nicely.

On the wings new signing Hubert Blanc didn't really impress though neither did Manuel Schuttelkopf, whilst on the left Jorge Ortega was in good form and thankfully throwing money at his agent encourged him to sign a new contract, covering him was Croatian Ivan Rezic who I am slowly retraining as a left winger.

In the centre of midfield German Mateusz Kapsa was in good form as my defensive midfielder, whilst in the playmaker role Julian Hobel put in some good performances as did Markus Klotz who will be pushing for his place if he can stay fit.

Upfront we are set at least as Rexhe Bytyci and Emilio continued their excellent partnership and to mix things up I had them swapping roles midmatch, Emilio even managed to finish topscorer in the league and was named in the team of the year while Bytyci was named fans player of the year. Thankfully I also got Emilio to sign a new contract with a higher release fee as Dutch and Spanish teams are sniffing around with the added bonus of lower bonuses and lower yearly increase
at the cost of a loyalty fee and agent fee, he was also sneaky in getting two bonsues for goal landmarks when I offered him the contract he'd just been paid for scoring 10 league goals, and whilst he was thinking about it he scored a hat-trick and stopped scoring for a couple of games, and then after he'd signed he scored his 15th goal early in the next game.

Best XI - I'd agree with that but with Ortega on the left instead of Rezic.

Overall XI - See's defenders Gollner and Strauss, Midfielders Kapsa and Rezic and Striker Emilio all named in the squad

Finances are not great we still lost money but at least it wasn't as bad as last season, we did bolster our finances by increasing our parent clubs to three which brings in a much needed £250K a year though the bad news is that the council have again blocked planning permission for a new stadium so it looks like we are going to be struggling for a few more years.

Reputation wise the Austrian Premier Divison is now the 15th highest ranked competiton - above Scottish Prem, Championship, Serie B and Spanish Second Division, even more interesting is that the Austrian FA Cup is higher ranked than both the Spanish and Italian cups.

Whilst we are the 10th best side in Austria and with LASK's promotion (who somehow have the third highest reputation?) we are now the worst Premier Division side but on the plus side we are now better than all the First Division sides.Europe wise Austria dropped down to 14th as Scotland flew up the rankings.

So the plan for next season is to somehow get out of the red without being forced to sell my first teamers and make an attempt at qualflying for Europe in the hope that that brings in some much needed money.

We achieved a record points tally of 80 this season. There is nothing stopping us in Norway now. Rosenborg is trying, and our games against them are turning out to be classics, but we are much better than them at the moment.

The squad is better, I have made some great signings. One is a quality centre back that has made us way more solid both home and in Europe.

I still aim for the domestic double. We had two bad games this season, where we dominated heavily but couldn't score. One of those games were the cup semi final, and annoying enough we went out. I also want to see if we can go through a season unbeaten. We are getting closer.

CL-update:

In february we met Malaga in the last 16. They were too strong and we went out.

We have done well in Europe the last years so now we were seeded 3rd for the autumns group stage. (Remember the Norwegian season is different than the continent, so we participate in to cl-seasons in one league-season.) We got a tough group with Barcelona, Juventus and Panathinaikos.

Strangely enough we won all our home games 4-1. And a draw and a win against Barcelona have made me very optimistic that we finally can compete well in Europe.

We won our group, and will meet Chelsea for the right to play in the quarter-finals.

Best player: Our club legend, and great target man, George Romaniuc, were absolutely sensational this year.

Top scorer: It is seven in a row for Tomasz Frankowski. Top scorer every season he has played for Tollnes. I try to rotate the forwards a bit, but he still scores loads of goals.

Economy:Ok. I try to invest in the stadium and the facilities. We make to little money to buy big name players. The income from Europe is not enough, and our stadium is too small. Have to wait until the Norwegian league rise in reputation. It is currently ranked 13th, but must rise for us to get more tv-revenue and prize money.

Key: This season (Last season)

Wage budget: Nkr 1.650.000 p/w (1.250.000 Nkr p/w)

Transfer budget: 8,7 mill. Nkr (44 mill. Nkr )

(For pounds, just divide the number with ten)

Av. attendance: 6112 (5387)

Players in: 17 (11)

Players out: 15 ( 7 )

Next year: Beat Chelsea and advance in Europe. Win the league and the cup. And upgrade the facilities again.

League Position - Keeping with our usual pattern, a disappointing season to follow our good one. Started out great in the League Cup reaching the final, but losing on penalties. We had a great start to the domestic season, sitting in 1st or 2nd most of the year, but we couldn't string two results together toward the end, and finished out of the European spots in 5th. In the main cup we made it to the Semi-Finals and lost on penalties.

Takeover: We got a new chairman, he had no intentions of replacing me, and he didn't change the finances whatsoever, but he did get approval for a new stadium. Should be interesting.

Europa League: - We drew Sliema FC of Malta in the first qualifying round, and took care of them with great ease: Leg One, Leg Two - Then we drew Slovakian side Zilina in the 2nd round, and were no match for them. Leg One, Leg Two

I have just scouted through both the national team and the under 21's, and I have to say there is very few great norwegian players. Most of them get two or two and a half stars. I just have to wait until my youth set up is fully upgraded I think, before the big domestic talents emerge.

Yeah mine aren't up to much really. I haven't played my save in a few weeks, but from what I can remember the Norway national teams only get weaker from what they start out with.

That's very quick work RocheBag, I'm just wondering what's your player turnover like? Just might explain why there is a little bit of inconsistencies in your seasons.

Good luck against Chelsea Taunton, you're bound to have a break-through in Europe sooner rather than later.

And finally, a nice steady performance once again michael, how likely are the chances of getting into Europe via a cup-run rather than the league, just that you seem a bit isolated in the middle there that's all.

I say initial, because a week later I finally broke him down and got that new stadium I've been wanting for the past 3 years Capacity of 9,360 is almost double what I have now, which should be suffice for the time being.
League (Positions) : After dropping 12 points the entire of last season, we decided to make this season more interesting by dropping 11 in our first 9 games this time around. That still wasn't enough though to stop us being top at Christmas, and with Red Star having a 1-2-2 record off the winter break, we more than cruised to title number 4.
Cup : Very bizarre. After cruising to the final with no problems, we decided to leave our shooting boots at home for the actual match, needing a fluke goal to get us to pens, which we then promptly lost on. That's 2 years in a row now without winning the cup, not really good enough for the class of the country.
Champions League : Once again, Red Star fell in qualifying (losing to Galatasary) so we flew the Serbian flag solo for another season.Hopefully this is the last year of being the 4th seeds, so we got a nice little celebration handed to us, being in easily the Group of Death; containing Man Utd, PSG and Dortmund. 2 wins over Dortmund was the easy part, and with gaining 2 draws against PSG we were left with a simple equation in our final game. Beat Man Utd at home, we win the group. If we didn't we'd be relying on the Parisians to match our result whilst they hosted Dortmund. Our worst performance of the season led in a 3-0 defeat, and PSG won 1-0 over Dortmund, sending us out in the groups for the 2nd successive year.
Europa League : Since we finished 3rd we got dropped down to the knock-out stages of the EL, where we once again got Russian opposition in the form of Zenit. A hard-fought 0-0 draw in Moscow was however followed by an abysmal home game, going down 2-0 at home.

Zenit managed to make a run to the semis, where they lost to eventual champions Juventus. Juve beat Arsenal 2-1 in the final.
Squad (1)(2) and Transfers : There was almost no point of doing a transfer screen this year, but the one transfer out paved way for my new 18 year old striker to come in, who you can see below
Player of the Season : Zika Lukovic - STThe league's young player of the season, as well as being in the Serbian squad for the upcoming Euro Championships is just reward for the new star striker. My biggest worry is that his agent's relationship with me is already at "fierce dislike" due to me putting on 'reject all bids' on him since the 2nd week of the season.
Finances : Leaking, leaking, leaking money. Just as well we have a big chest of money to dish out on by the looks of it. Some of the big contracts though end in the summer and won't be renewed so hopefully the wage bill can be helped by that. I wonder what level of output is the minimum that allows dividends, just a thought...
Other Stuff : A selection of other events that have happened this season.

2018 Champions League Final: Man Utd 2-0 AC Milan. Another English team winning, that's 5 English winners in a row and 7 of the last 8. Man Utd have themselves 3 out of the last 4 titles, and the last 2 years the winner of my group has gone on to win the entire tournament.

A poor showing by Serbian clubs as a whole really. Red Star failed to get out of their EL group, meaning another below-average performance for the year. We're running out of time to build up on our great season a few years ago in order to get more European places.

League Position - Easily my most frustrating season to date. Starting with the League Cup, we breezed through the group stage as usual, got through on penalties in the Semi-Final, then lost in the final again, finishing runner up in a cup for the 5th time, with still no trophies. Things started a lot better in the League though, but then the injury bug bit us hard. We won our first 7 League games, then won only 5 of the next 15, blowing a massive lead to finally just scrape into 4th place. The main cup saw us exit early again, crashing out in the 4th round.

Players:

Bjarni Eyjolfsson (MC) - Another good season, his attributes are really coming along. Sadly this was likely his last season with us, as he's demanding more money than my wage budget can even come close to offering.Daoi Arnason (ST) - Product of the youth system, brought along slowly, and replacing our injured striker Dana Harryson, really made his mark

League: Looking over the current squad there wasn't much quality in it. The first order of business was releasing as many players as I could and getting my own in. By the end of the preseason a decent squad was assembled. THere was a big issue on defence though. Goals were being leaked all over the place. We werent losing game but were drawing way to many. At mid season a tactic change and a key transfer and the leaky goals stopped. The club only dropped 3 points the 2nd half of the season. Unfortunately it wasnt enough as we were 2 points shy of 1st and promotion. Two signees ( Aas & Haara ) coming to the club after the season will really help next year

Cup: Unfortunately the club had basically no Cup run this year. We lost our opening match of the Finnish Cup on penalties.

Key Players:

Osahon Eboigbe: Led the club in goals with 23 despite missing 2 months to injury. Also lead league in man of matchesMadiou Konate: Scored 20 goals. Filled in well while Eboigbe was injured.Fredrik Vikstrom: Picked up late in the season. The main reason the defence started playing well.

Next Season Goals: Win the League. Cut the last of dead weight and replace with youth. Strengthen Midfield and Defence.

Rochebag: I like your persistence. Your are slowly but steady progressing. Hope that first trophy will come soon. Nice to see that one of your own products is making his mark. (Arnason). That is always rewarding. Also hope Europe will bring you some money.

Goaliemanpat121: Great first season. But a bit bittersweet since you were so close to promotion. Certain you will clinch it next season!

Thanks Taunton. I usually only ever get time for one main game per version so I play a Dafuge game. Trying this challenge for the first time. I gotta say I am really enjoying playing in a new country and finding new players. I found a player that is dominating a lower league like in no other save before. Almost done with season 2. Recap will probably be up tomorrow.

League: I had high expectations for the club going into this season. After missing promotion by two points in season 1 I expected to win promotion this year. Season started up and down due to juggling a Cup run and the league but after the second month of league play we were comfortably on top and never looked like giving it up. In the end we won the league and promotion by 9 points. Lead the league in goals by far as well as second in least conceded. Five players were named to the Team of the Season. I won Manager of the Year. 6 of the 10 nominees for Player of the Year were YPA players as well as the 3 highest vote getters were on the squad. During the season we also recorded the largest victory in league history with a 9-0 win over KPV. Youngster Shpetim Kamberi even scored what was voted the Goal of the Season.

Cup: This season I really wanted to make a deep Cup run after last season bomb-out in the first round. This season we pushed all the way to the Finnish Cup Semi-final before losing to Premier league team IFK-Mariehamn 3-2. Had we not been in injury trouble at that point I think we could have taken them.

Last Seasons Goals:
Win the League – completed
Cut Dead Weight and Bring in Youth – dead weight was cut. Not much youth was brought in though.
Strengthen Midfield and Defence – the defence was improved slightly and the midfield was better with Bjorkstrand but not enough improvement to my liking.Next Season Goals: Survive our first season up a division. Win the Finnish Cup. Strengthen the midfield significantly.

Just popped across from the Big Euro Nation challenge to see how everyone was getting on. Some fantastic players lighting up the more obscure parts of European football. Must say I'm forever amazed by the progress you guys manage in the Champions League. I'm having enough of a struggle with my Portuguese side. Bravo!

After 12 years of group stage champions league performances and numerous league and cup wins with SJK in Finland, I've decided to start a new game in Serbia, just holidaying at the moment and will choose a team as soon as its done.

I enjoyed the challenge with SJK but after 20 seasons I decided to start again considering their is a new patch out.

Aim is to reach the knockout rounds of the champions league eventually.